A systematic discussion of Urdu
meter, or ba;hr [ba;hr], would take us into
the thick of Arabic and Persian poetic theory. As in the case of the
afaa((iil , we must refer the theoretically-minded
student to the works suggested in the Bibliography.
For practical purposes, we offer a list of the meters commonly used
in Urdu, with their full technical names, in an order designed for
easy reference: starting with meters with the greatest number of initial
long syllables, and ending with those with the fewest. This list is
not quite complete, but the meters not included in it are very rare
indeed. In the interest of simplicity, rare variants permissible within
certain meters are not shown. Classical poetry is basically confined
to the meters we have given; modern na:zm [na:zm],
of course, often takes liberties with the traditional meters, or even
rejects them entirely.

We have shown the division of the
meters into feet. The feet of course correspond to the [afaa((iil]
described in Chapter 5. Note that all Urdu
meters end with a long syllable--after which a short "cheat syllable"
is permitted to occur, at the poet's pleasure, in almost all meters--and
that three short syllables may never occur in succession.

For convenience in reference, the
meters are arranged in order according to their number of initial
long syllables, from the ones with most initial long syllables to
the ones with fewest.

Each meter in the list above is described by a series
of Arabic terms, the first of which is the name of the basic meter
itself. The second is either mu;samman [mu;samman],
describing a meter with four feet, or musaddas
[musaddas], describing a meter with three feet. The rest of the terms
describe the modifications, zi;haafaat [zi;haafaat],
by which the basic or saalim meter has been
converted into the particular meter being described.

At the end of a line of poetry in
any of these meters, an extra word-final short syllable may be present if the poet
so chooses. This word-final short syllable is not scanned. Such a syllable almost
always consists of a true one-letter short syllable, or of a syllable
of the form { )) [hamzah] + vowel}. This short
"cheat syllable" is permitted in all the meters except #26.

A number of meters on the above list have
a natural "caesura," or break, halfway through each line. This is not formally a "caesura" in the Western metrical sense, so it's technically a kind of "quasi-caesura": but for convenience it is here called a "caesura." All such meters
have the following pattern of feet: foot A, foot B; (break); foot A,
foot B. In these meters, an extra word-final short syllable, unscanned, may be present at the end of the first half of the line, just before the (quasi-)caesura.
Meters which permit this extra unscanned word-final short syllable before the
caesura are: #2, #4, #7, #20, #21, #22, #25, #36. Note that #35 does
not have such a caesura. The caesura was not traditionally recognized
in Urdu-Persian metrical theory; it was first explored by Hasrat Mohani
[ ;hasrat mohaanii ] in ma((aa))ib-e
su;xan [ma((aa))iib-e su;xan] (Kanpur, 1941), and has since been
studied by S. R. Faruqi in ((aruu.z
aahang aur bayaan .

Most traditional genres of poetry
may be written in any meter. The ;Gazal [Gazal],
qa.siidah [qa.siidah], and mar;siyah
[mar;siyah] offer this freedom, as do most of the minor genres. The
ma;snavii [ma;snavii] is traditionally supposed
to be written in one of the following meters: #1 with #9; #11; #14
with #15; #16 with #17; #24; #27; #28; #29. But this is not binding,
only customary. Permissible meters for the rubaa((ii
[rubaa((ii], however, are very clearly spelled out; see Section
6.3 for details. Free verse, or aazaad na:zm
[aazaad na:zm], tends to use either #28 or "Hindi" meter (see Section
6.2).

You might have noticed certain pairs
of meters-- #1 and #9, #14 and #15, #16 and #17, #18 and #19, #33
and #34-- which differ only in that the next-to-last syllable consists
of one long (=) in the first member of the pair, which is replaced
by two shorts (- -) in the second member. From a practical point of
view, it does indeed seem as though these are permutations of a single
meter. But from a theoretical point of view, they are quite separate;
poems are sometimes written using only one member of the pair. So
we have shown them separately, but have also indicated their close
affiliation.

Sometimes, when scanning, the student
may encounter quite deviant-seeming poems, in which often almost every single
line seems different from the next. This might occur in dealing with
the flexible variant form of #6. More common than this form, however,
is Mir's "Hindi" meter, which will be dealt with below.

6.2 == Mir's "Hindi" meter

Mir introduced, or at least used
extensively and made popular, a meter very unlike the meters of conventional
prosody. (In fact the meter was apparently first used by Mir Jafar Zatalli [miir
ja((far za:tallii] (d. 1712) in a few of his longish satirical poems.)
Although expressible in terms of the standard afaa((iil
, this meter is highly irregular. The lines are equal in length in
that they all have eight feet, but they do not always contain an equal
number of syllables. Hardly anything is absolutely fixed in this meter
except that the last syllable in each line must be long, short syllables
must occur in pairs, and the short syllables in each pair may be separated
by no more than one long.

Usually the first four feet contain
eight long syllables or their equivalent (with two short syllables
counted as equal to one long), and the last four feet contain seven
long syllables, for a total line equal to fifteen long syllables.
Yet other variations of this meter, used by Mir and others, contain
fourteen long syllables (seven plus seven) or sixteen long syllables
(eight plus eight). As with other meters, an extra short syllable,
unscanned, is allowed at the end of the line.

There has been a great deal of
controversy over whether this meter was invented by Mir--or rather,
as it now appears, by Zatalli--or somehow already exists within the
conventional framework, or is a Hindi meter modified and adapted for
Urdu. Most prosodists now hold the latter view; certainly this is
basically a moric meter like many Indic meters, rather than a positional
one like those of the traditional Perso-Arabic system. Within the
traditional system, this meter could be called { mutaqaarib
mu;samman mu.zaa((af } [mutaqaarib mu;samman mu.zaa((af] with
varying modifications. A half-length form of it which has been described
as { mutaqaarib mu;samman a;sram a;slam abtar
} [mutaqaarib mu;samman a;sram a;slam abtar] is also sometimes used
in Urdu. On the whole, however, these theoretical discussions are
not too helpful to the student who wants to use the meter in practice.

Here then is a form of ostensive
definition of Mir's "Hindi" meter: a list of the various configurations
which commonly occur in its first four feet. They are shown in the
traditional [afaa((iil] patterns into which they could be broken:

Each of these patterns contains
the equivalent of eight long syllables. Usually the second half of
the line contains the equivalent of seven long syllables. Its customary
patterns differ from those given above only by the omission of the
final long syllable.

Another form of definition is that
used by Russelland
Matthews and Shackle. It
is an admirably simple one. It envisions the meter as generated by
a pattern like the following, in which every even-numbered long syllable
except the eighth can be replaced at will by two short syllables:

= ( = ) / = ( = ) / = ( = ) / =
= // = ( = ) / = ( = ) / = ( = ) / =

This is a convenient and powerful
way to think of the meter, and offers a breakdown of syllables more
simple and lucid than that offered by the regular [afaa((iil]--as
can be seen by comparing it with patterns (a) through (h) shown above.
We recommend it to the student as the best general analytical notion
of this meter.

However, both of the above attempts
at schematization eventually break down. Mir simply uses this meter
in more complex and idiosyncratic ways than can be shown in these
or any diagrams. Sometimes he does break the eighth long syllable
into two shorts, thus disposing of the "caesura" as a reliable metrical
constant; sometimes his word boundaries themselves flow over the "caesura,"
thus disposing of it as a semantic organizing principle. (And in any
case the break in this meter never permits an extra unscanned short
syllable before it, as do the more solid caesuras in the regular meters.)
It's true that more often than not the break does seem to be there,
but it is certainly optional rather than compulsory. Here is an example
from Mir's fifth divan [M{1590,1}] which abolishes the caesura on all levels:

This is not the only line in which
Mir violates the caesura metrically, or in which he violates it semantically,
but it is one of the few in which he violates it both ways at once.
It seems also to be the only line in any of his divans in which he
breaks every single even-numbered long syllable into two short syllables.
(By contrast, there are a number of lines in which all the syllables are long; one example is the second line of M{1537,1}.)

Moreover, in this meter short syllables
can also sometimes occur in a kind of syncopated pattern, (- = -),
which is not allowed for in any of the above diagrams. An example
of this syncopated pattern appears in the fourth verse of Ghazal
Six, by Jur'at, in the Exercises. Even in this syncopated form
short syllables do, however, always occur in pairs. An example from Mir: M{1650,3}. A problematical case discussed by SRF: M{1624,1}.

What then do you really need to
know about this meter? Basically, that it can be recognized by its
remarkable length--hardly any of the regular meters are as long--and
its alarmingly erratic syllable pattern. It can be generally understood
according to Russell's model, with suitable reservations about the
caesura (not always present), the pairs of short syllables (they sometimes
have a long between them) and the line length (it can vary by a syllable
or two, and truncated versions of the meter can also be used). It's
a very rhythmic and lively meter, a great pleasure to recite; with
just a bit of practice, it becomes quite familiar.

6.3 == The rubaa((ii
meters

The rubaa((ii
[rubaa((ii], or quatrain, is, like most genres of Urdu poetry, adopted
from Persian, and has an extremely rigid metrical scheme. The [rubaa((ii]
is written in a modified form of the hazaj [hazaj]
meter. There are twenty-four fixed forms prescribed for it, and a
[rubaa((ii] may contain any four of them. However, twelve of the twenty-four
are distinguished only by the presence of a final short syllable that
in fact need not be scanned at all, so in fact there are only twelve
genuine forms. Of these, only six have been commonly used in Urdu.

All the rubaa((ii
forms contain the equivalent of ten long syllables, no more than three
of which ever consist of pairs of short syllables. All short syllables
occur in pairs; the halves of each pair are never separated by more
than one long. The first two syllables, and the last syllable, are
always long. All the forms have four feet, and the last foot is always
the shortest. The [rubaa((ii] meter has no caesura; as in most other
meters, an extra short syllable is allowed at the end of each line.

Here is a list of the rubaa((ii
forms used in Urdu, roughly in order of popularity. All the meter
names start with hazaj mu;samman [hazaj mu;samman...

Inspired by Russell's simplification
of Mir's meter, here is what might be called the Pritchett formulation
of rubaa((ii meter: a set of ten long syllables
which may be grouped into (nontraditional) feet of three, three, three,
and one long syllables. The final long in each foot may be freely
replaced by two shorts, and the second foot ONLY may be freely replaced
by (= - = -). This is what it looks like in schematic form:

1

2

3

/

4

5

6

/

7

8

9

/

10

=

=

(=)

/

=

=

(=)

/

=

=

(=)

/

=

(- -)

/

(- -)

/

(- -)

/

/

(=

-

= -)

/

/

It seems that this diagram will
generate all the rubaa((ii meters, and it certainly
has the merit of conciseness. However, what the student really needs
to know about [rubaa((ii] meter is that a poem four lines long with
a rhyme scheme AABA or AAAA is most probably going to turn out to
BE a {rubaa((ii}. Then you can look it up in this book until you get
used to it. In our experience it takes longer to get used to than
most meters, but its subtlety and sophistication make it well worth
the effort.